Lowry activates US Open mode at the Memorial
Shane Lowry smiles on the 15th hole during the PGA Championship Practice Round at Quail Hollow Club on Wednesday, May 14, 2025 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/PGA of America)
Shane Lowry cruised along in the slipstream of a red-hot Ben Griffin and moved into US Open mode by carding an impressive opening 69 in the $20 million Memorial Tournament in Ohio.
As Griffin followed his first individual PGA Tour win in last week's Charles Schwab Challenge with a seven-under 65 to set the early target at Muirfield Village, the Offaly man produced the kind of ball-striking brilliance he will need at fearsome Oakmont in Pittsburgh in two weeks.
While he bogeyed two back-nine par-fives after tangling with the punishing rough, Lowry was still beaming afterwards as he made an eagle and three birdies, missing just four fairways and only three greens in regulation to end the day tied for fourth.
"I told him when we finished, 'Keep it going; things will turn around for you pretty soon'," Lowry joked of Griffin, who followed his debut win in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Andrew Novak in April with a one-shot victory at Colonial Country Club on Sunday.
"He pretty much holed everything he looked at today. It was good. We bounced off each other, we all played really nicely, and it's nice when you get a good group like that.
"My three-under doesn't look that great beside his seven-under, but three-under is a good score out there on this course. It's pretty difficult."
Lowry was especially pleased with his driving, which allowed him to lead the field for iron play.
"I hit the ball in play a lot today, I hit a lot of fairways, which allowed me to hit a lot of greens, so I took advantage of some good driving today," said the world number 14, who will be highly fancied at Oakmont, where he had a four-shot lead heading into the final round in 2016 before finishing joint second behind Dustin Johnson.
He birdied the second and eagled the seventh thanks to a brilliant 273-yard approach to four feet, then followed bogey sixes at the 11th and 15th with birdies at the 13th and 16th.
"You miss a shot and you're probably going to make bogey," added Lowry, who is "looking forward to the challenge" of Oakmont.
"There are just no gimmes out there. There are no holes where you feel like you can get away with one. You need to hit good shots."
Griffin might be running low on energy after his win in Texas, but he enjoyed playing with Lowry.
"That was my first time playing with Shane, but I had a feeling me and his personalities would kind of match up, and we had an awesome time," he said after finishing with three successive birdies thanks to a chip-in at the 18th.
He led by two strokes from Collin Morikawa and by three from Max Homa as Lowry’s 69 left him joint fourth with US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley and Canada’s Nick Taylor.
Defending champion and world number one Scottie Scheffler found just six fairways but still carded a two-under 70 with his B game to share seventh with Novak, Akshay Bhatia and Si Woo Kim.
“I need to give myself some more looks,” Scheffler said. “I felt like I was out of the fairway a bit too much today. I was able to hit a decent amount of greens, just giving myself a few more quality looks, I think, would be a big difference.”
In Salzburg, Conor Purcell's two under 68 left him joint 21st, just five shots behind Germany's Marcel Schneider in the DP World Tour's Austrian Alpine Open.
At the Challenge de Cadiz, Dermot McElroy and Max Kennedy were joint tenth, five shots behind Spain's Quim Vidal, after opening with two under 70s.
Meanwhile, Co Louth's Gerard Dunne will be looking to build on his tie for fourth in the Flogas Irish Amateur Open at Seapoint when he tees it up in the Pharmaher Healthcare-sponsored East of Ireland Championship at Baltray today.
